Five
KHATAK
My watch comm vibrates against my wrist.
I glance down at the display, and my heart stutters.
Sutek: Meeting with Rist confirmed. Tonight, in three hours. Room 3-B. Don’t be late.
He did it. Sutek actually arranged a meeting for me. This is what I came here for. My chance to secure the alliance, to prove to my father that I’m not completely useless. My last chance to make a difference. Oh, I can make such a difference.
My chest tightens with a mixture of hope and dread.
What if I fail? What if Rist laughs me out of the room like everyone else does? What if I’m too forgettable, too insignificant, toonothingto even hold his attention long enough to present the proposal?
But what if I succeed?
The thought sends a warm flush through me. If I can secure this alliance… I could change so many things, so many lives. I’d finally be worthy of?—
Her.
The thought surfaces unbidden, and I can’t push it away.
Selene.
If I prove myself, if I accomplish this mission, then maybe... maybe I’d have something to offer her. Maybe I’d be someone she could actually want.
I can’t pursue her until I’ve succeeded. Until I’m worthy. Until I have something—anything—to bring to the table besides my string of failures.
My tail twitches anxiously against my leg as I make my way through the hotel corridors. The Halloween decorations are everywhere now—orange and black fabric, those strange ghost shapes, carved gourds with leering faces. The amber lights cast everything in warm, welcoming tones that feel at odds with the knot of anxiety in my stomach.
The haunted house is set up in the east wing. I can see the entrance from here—cobwebs stretched across the doorway, flickering lights, unsettling sounds drifting from within.
My heart hammers just thinking about entering. There’s a reason I never joined combat missions. There’s a reason I’m not like my brother.
But standing just outside, checking something on a datapad, is Selene.
My breath catches.
She’s changed clothes since the apple bobbing. Gone is the professional staff uniform. Now she wears dark fitted pants that hug her curves and a soft sweater that looks comfortable and soft to the touch. Would her skin beneath be just as soft, I wonder? My fingers itch to reach out and touch it, to touch her. It wouldn’t take much to pull the fabric from her skin, or even let my claws rip through it.
Her hair is still pulled back, but looser now, a few more strands framing her face. I long to free it completely, to run my fingers through its silken strands.
To just hold her close.
She’s beautiful.
She looks up, and her entire face lights up when she sees me.
That smile. That genuine happiness at my presence. How is that possible? How can she look at me and smile like that?
“Khatak!” She waves, and my tail betrays me with an enthusiastic wag. “You made it!”
I close the distance between us, and suddenly she’s moving forward too, and then?—
She hugs me.
Her arms wrap around my waist, her body pressing against mine, warm and soft andreal. The top of her head barely reaches my chest, and I can smell her hair—something sweet and floral. My hands hover uncertainly for a moment before settling on her back, feeling the gentle curve of her spine, the warmth of her skin through the thin fabric of her sweater.
